Which social media and how to write for it

 This is a excerpt from our new free ebook on setting up and running a small business. Contact me at kathy at wrightwell.com to get the full pdf book.

What are you selling and who is buying?

 What you want to sell to whom makes a difference to how you sell.

• Low-cost, high-volume products?
• Luxury, low-volume goods?
• Professional services?
• Your expert opinion?
• Selling to consumers or businesses?

 What’s the profile of your audience – where are you likely to find them?

Choose LinkedIn for professionals

On the whole, you’ll find businesses use search engines and LinkedIn to find people supplying professional services. So if you’re a marketer, photographer, designer or any other freelance professional, these are your tools. LinkedIn gives you plenty of opportunity to tell the world about your skills and experience, and how you can help other businesses, so make the most of it.

Pick Facebook for consumers

 Facebook for business is a great place to communicate with customers. Predominantly it’s being used by businesses who want to talk to consumers rather than other businesses. You can use Facebook to highlight offers, talk around your chosen topic, and build relationships.

Google is trying to build the same story with Google+, but it’s not yet got the same momentum.

Use Twitter with caution

 Of all the social media options, this is the one that can eat away at your time. Hours can pass while you’re just reading other people’s tweets.

Sign up for Twitter and start “follow”ing people of interest. People will often follow you back, and so you build up an audience for your tweets.

There’s a whole world of etiquette for using Twitter. Use a search engine to find a few pointers before you launch in.

Think carefully about what you want to tweet about. Is your business audience interested in your personal life? If you’re a celebrity, then yes. If your lifestyle is part of what you’re selling – as a journalist, or a chef or a comedian - then possibly. If you’re selling products or professional services, then be more cautious. Do you want your potential customers to know what you were up to last Friday night? Really?

You can set up LinkedIn to import all your tweets into your account, but again, be careful what you say, or take advantage of the tool that only imports the tweets you want. 

Writing style for social media 

Whatever form you're writing, however many characters you've got available, you still need to make your message clear, or it's a wasted effort. Too many abbreviations, typos and hashtags just confuse rather than clarify. Keep it simple. Keep it correct.

Setting up and running a business - free book of tips

Just starting out in your own business? Realising how much there is to learn? I've just edited a free ebook that's been written for people like you. Tips for Setting Up and Running a Successful Business is full of advice about topics such as tax, marketing, social networking, web sites, creating the right image, and looking after yourself. I've contributed a couple of chapters on writing your own sales copy and how to choose the right social media and networking for your business.

To receive a copy of this free book, just drop me a line at kathy at wrightwell.com.

Make your words work hard at selling

You can’t beat face-to-face conversations for selling to customers.

We’re not always there to talk though. That’s when the power of written words really counts. In ads, web sites, brochures, newsletters and more, it’s the written words that have to make the sale.

Grab attention

If someone lands on your web site, you have seconds to persuade them that they should hang around and read a bit about your business. The same’s true for any leaflets, brochures or ads you produce. Write yourself some really interesting headlines and make every word count.

“Who you talking to?”

In the sales and marketing world, it’s all about the customer. Think less about what you want to say, and more what your customers will want to hear. A great tip is to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and ask yourself “So what?” about everything you write.

Take this example from WigglyWormers, who have the unenviable task of making socks sound interesting. Their socks are made from pure goats’ hair. “So what?” you say. And Wiggly has the answer - it means they’re warm in winter, cool in summer and stay fresh for days (a great sales point for the single men in your life).

Or take any piece of technology. For most people it’s not the power or widgets of their laptop, phone or camera that interest them. It’s what that technology can help them do to make their lives better.

Keep it simple

When you’re writing to sell you want to help people take in information quickly and easily. So short sentences and paragraphs as well as words that are familiar to the people you’re selling to are all really helpful.

Make a few lists

Bullet-point lists can work well to make the page look more interesting. Keep each point short though – just a word or a single phrase is easiest to read. And just like when you’re planting out the herbaceous border, odd numbers seem to work best. Go for three or five, but no more than that.

Don’t forget the detail

Have you noticed ads that forget to mention important points, like names, locations or dates? Make sure people know how to find you, in person, on the phone or online.

Get the horse to drink

You’ve persuaded your readers to take the next step in buying from you. But what is that step? Whether you want people to pick up the phone, create an online booking or request more information – make it clear and make it easy.

Check it over

When you’ve worked so hard to build up your credibility, you don’t want misspellings and dodgy grammar to ruin the effect. If there’s no one around to proof read your writing, print it out and look at it later yourself.